Shadowrun

It is a rare and wonderful thing to play in a D&D campaign from start to finish. Even more rare to play from Level 1 to Level 20. Over Memorial Day weekend, the Infinity & Beyond crew completed the Eberron campaign, Oracle of War. From start to finish, we played this game on Arvan Eleron’s Twitch channel.

All of our characters grew and changed over the course of the campaign. Though, relationships remained steadfast. My character, Neesiana D’Jorasco, a halfling healer from the house of healing is one of my favorite characters to date. Between her unwavering faith in Eberron (the dragon) and her sister, Merimee Hawksmoor (played by the incomparable Marie Bilodeau), Neesiana managed some things I didn’t think I could: she remained joyful despite the pains of war and loss. I even “won D&D” once by having a Divine Intervention go off in the middle of a tense combat. One of many moments I won’t forget.

The entire crew was memorable. John’s Starforged, Elerian; Tren’s Artificer, Miatantin with his goodest of boys, Spanner; Brandon’s insanity with his wild magic Sorcerer, Rowan, Marie’s College of Sword Bard always ready with a witty repartee, and, of course, our GM, Greg, who played all of the beloved NPCs and hated enemies.

The two mottos of our game were: “It’s the best bad idea we’ve ever had.” and “I had a great time. I hated every minute of it!”

The other thing I really appreciated was how we could argue IC or discuss things OOC and trust each other to keep up, to listen, to respect each other. Because of all that, I dedicated my latest Shadowrun novel, Imre Grey, to this gaming group.

This one is dedicated to my “Infinity & Beyond” Eberron crew:

Marie, John, Tren, Brandon, and Greg.

Though we live far from one another, gaming with all of you online over the last five years (up to L20!) has been a balm to my soul when life has gotten complicated. You have always given me something fun to look forward to. Thank you. I can’t wait to see what we get up to next.

Yes, I will miss Neesiana. A lot. But she had a lovely wrap up. I am looking forward to our next adventure. It will be a low level Dragonlance game, right after the cataclysm. Just watch and see what mischief we cause with a bunch of brand new characters.

Shadowrun: Imre Grey
By Jennifer Brozek

One Foot in Each World…

Imre Dahl, the manager of Shades, Snohomish’s most elite members-only club, has a problem. Actually, he has many problems, the biggest one that he’s been strongarmed into hosting a political dinner for Mayor Feddersen. Nothing good ever comes from something like this.

Complicating things further, Imre’s long exile from Rabat is almost at an end. All he needs to do is endure one last meeting with the powerful and mercurial Mademoiselle Beaumont. At the same time, his personal bodyguards have been called away to pay a debt, and the timing couldn’t be worse.

If he worked only in the shadows, many of Imre’s problems could be solved by a bullet, but now that he works in the light, he’s forced to play nice with big fishes in small ponds. Of course, even in the light, nothing is as it seems, and forces are conspiring against Imre to make his life hell, and possibly destroy Shades in the bargain.

The biggest question of all is can he stop the plots he can’t see, but knows are coming, while pulling off the political event of the year?

This is the third book in my unofficial Shadowrun “colors quartet” series. (As in, it didn’t start as a series but became one.) While each book is a “one-off” and can be read in order, they share characters. An enemy of one book could be the protagonist in another or a side character. However, I do recommend you read in order of publication: Makeda Red then Elfin Black then Imre Grey (UBL link).  The final novel in the series, Elf in White, is scheduled to be released in June 2027.

The cover art is by Peter Tikos.

I am a busy bee this time of year. Except, this time I have added plot twists!

• Mimir climbed to my trophy shelf and fell off when he tipped it over. He’s fine(ish) now. He’s seen a vet, has meds, etc… I swear these cats are trying to keep me on my toes. (Also, if you missed it, Leeloo is doing great.)
• Busy medical month. All routine. All fine. Just time consuming and interrupting my normal schedule. I dislike my schedule being interrupted.
• I have a convention next week. Origins Game Fair. The Husband will be staying home to babysit the house, the cats, and the kitchen reno. First time in a long time that I will be traveling without the Husband (especially since I’m vending at this con). I will miss him, but it’ll be fine. I’ll be rooming with the ever-fabulous Amanda Cherry!
• The big thing. It’s exactly four months since I stopped having a real kitchen. Last week, tile was supposed to go in, but didn’t because of some very good reasons. This week they were supposed to go in, but didn’t for more reasonable reasons. Next week, hopefully.

• Even more hopefully, I will come back from Origins with a lot more kitchen than I have right now. (As you see above and below.) That would be nice.

• I’m working on the galleys for Shadowrun: Imre Grey right now. Peter Tikos did such an amazing job on the cover art. I’m so pleased. I will show it to you as soon as I can.
• Reminder: If you can vote in the Hugos, please consider me for Best Editor, Short Form. Hugo voting will close on August 8, 2026 at noon PDT.

I think that’s it. Busy-busy me is still thinking of you.

Augment 4, Winter 2083 is live! You can get it now at your favorite store. Look at this gorgeous cover!

Augment is Shadowrun’s official magazine. This is a fully in-universe magazine, and can be used in Shadowrun games as well as enjoyed by the casual reader.

Augment, Winter 2083. In this issue about city life and vehicles, Leach tours around his hometown of Seattle to sample its delights. Marques Reille gets caught shopping in one of his favorite stores by none other than Gabrielle Spinrad! Yuta Nakata has a feisty interview with our cover artist, PR4NK-r, about art and life. Louise Sashey, new columnist of The Cutting Edge, spends time in Montreal and Kyoto, finding ways to experience city life in style. Enjoy these articles, reviews of new products, clothing, tech, and so much more!

Augment your life with Augment magazine!

Even the back cover is gorgeous!

I had such a good time editing this magazine. It’s a ton of work but worth it. I hope you check it out. I’ll put pictures up of all four issues together when I get my hot little hands on them.

Words cannot express how excited am that Augment magazine is a real thing! Augment, Spring 2083 done. You can pre-order it now and pre-orders are love. I’m so proud of this magazine. As the managing editor of it, I know how hard everyone has worked on it.

You don’t need to know a thing about Shadowrun to enjoy it. But, if you are a Shadowrun player, this is a prop, supplement, and fun reading all in one. It will be released on 14 Feb in ebook and physical POD as a digest magazine.

Augment your life with Augment magazine! 

Augment is Shadowrun’s official magazine. This is a fully in-universe publication, and can be used in Shadowrun games as well as enjoyed by the casual reader.

Augment, Spring 2083. Magic is in the air and within the pages of this issue. Learn words of wisdom in an exclusive one-on-one interview with VIP CEO Michael Bishop. Listen to DJ Smash and Will-o-Wisp as they share their insight into the combination of magic, machine, and music. Discover how runestorms are endangering the Caribbean. Enjoy reviews of new products, clothing, tech, and so much more!

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Real world column authors include: Marie Bilodeau, Aaron Rosenberg, Bryan CP Steele, Brandon O’Brien, Bryan Young, Michael A. Stackpole, RJ Thomas, and Jennifer Brozek. SINless Secrets by Dylan Birtolo, Jason M Hardy, Jaym Gates, Bryan CP Steele, and Crystal Frasier.

Cover art by Ron Sanders.

Interior art by Jeff Porter, Bruno Balixa, Marco Pennacchietti, Jose-Luis Segura, Mia Steingräber, Andrew Lowry, Lukasz Matuszek, Brenton Smith, Lara Baron Ortega, Elizabeth Galindorf, and Kat Hardy.

Loren L. Coleman, Publisher; John Helfers, Executive Editor; Jennifer Brozek, Managing Editor; Art Direction, Kat Hardy; David A. Kerber, Layout and Graphic Design

(I am so very busy. I’m sorry. This is all I had time to do. At least they are pretty images and informative, too!)

2025 is going to be one of those transitional years in my life. Several long running projects will end and several new projects will begin. So, what do I have planned? (Note: everything listed in this post is subject to change without warning—such is the Way of the Freelancer.)

Professionally: It is all project-based. And most of it will be in editing. A lot of it will be for CGL, but I do have a couple of other freelance clients I’m working with. I will do some writing as well. Maybe some more voice acting/narration.

For Catalyst, in specific…

• Augment magazine, issues 1-4, will be released.
• I’ve also got the Shadowrun novella line to take care of.
• And, on the schedule, at least one more Shadowrun anthology. 
• Also, there’s a couple of BattleTech things on my plate to edit and write.
• Not to mention finishing Shadowrun: Imre Grey and, at least starting Shadowrun: Elf in White.

For me, personally: I plan to self-release several projects in 2025.

• First, we will finish up “Dear Penpal, Belgium 1980.” Then I will have to decide if I want to write the next of those. I won’t do it in actual physical letters, but if “Dear Penpal, Pennsylvania 1984” happens, it will still be an epistolary work vaguely based on my life as a teenager.
• Second, I will release a small fiction collection of my original Tales of the Hucked Tankard (from Campaign Magazine), including the unreleased story and a second original “twenty years later” story.
• Third, I’ve got plans to update Industry Talk to Industry Talk Revised: 15 Years Later. A lot has happened in the last 15 years. Some of my advice has changed. Some has not. But I think I have a lot more to say than I did last time.

Convention Travel… I plan to limit my travel a lot. Gen Con, my main industry convention, and Worldcon Seattle 2025. That’s it. That’s all I currently have on the docket for work travel.

On the Homefront, I only have three specific desires this year: Decluttering, less time online, and finishing unfinished books.

• Decluttering: “I need to declutter.” I’ve been saying this for 3 years now. This year, with the help of the Husband, we’ve decided to gamify the project and tackle it together. I broke the house out into 36 projects, wrote them down, and put them into a wooden chest. Each week, we will pull one out and do it. I think this will work. I hope it will. I can feel the weight of things on my shoulders.
• Unfinished Books: In 2024 (and 2023, 2022…), I started reading various novels, novellas, collections, and graphic stories. For whatever reason (work, distraction, exhaustion, travel, etc…), these books have not been finished. I spend too much time online. I want to remedy that. I declare 2025 to be the Year of the Unfinished Book. I will keep track of every book I read by category (Unfinished, New, Work), and publish it at the end of the year. Hopefully, this will convince me to renew my reading habit.
• One day off the internet per week: I think I’m going to see if I can take one day a week off the internet. The world will survive one day without me looking at email. I just need to figure out which day of the week it will be. (Probably Sunday—the day I have no scheduled meetings nor other online commitments–except for the “Dear Penpal” zoom calls.)

Overall, the thing I want to do most in 2025 is to be gentle with myself. To stop yelling at myself for “failing” whatever arbitrary goal I had set. I don’t have high hopes for the next 4 years as it is. Thus, I will be doing what I can to care for myself, my friends and family, and my local community.

But, as always, I will keep track of my metrics. (If you would like a copy of my blank 2025 Freelancer Summary document, contact me. I will send it to you.)

One last thought. I don’t make “resolutions” (noun: a decision to do something or to behave in a certain manner). The term isn’t for me. I plan. Complete with specific steps to accomplish that plan. Either I execute the plan or I don’t. I know it’s all semantics, but “resolutions” feels a bit wishy-washy to me.

That’s it. Doable goals with specific plans for 2025.

Here’s the numbers. We all love numbers so much.

• Books published: 2, Shadowrun: Auditions and Shadowrun: The Mosaic Run
• Anthologies published: 3, 99 Fleeting Fantasies, Shadowrun: Magic, Machines, and Mayhem (co-edited with John Helfers), and Shadowrun: Through the Decades (co-edited with John Helfers)
• Short stories published: 4, “Eye of the Beholder” (co-written with Raven Oak), “Hella AFK”, “A Tale for Munchausen’s Merriment”, and “Dueling Minstrels” (co-written with Marie Bilodeau)

• New words written: 105,830
• Words edited: 441,00+

• Awards nominated for: 2 (both Scribe awards)
• Awards won: 1 (Won the Scribe award for Shadowrun: Auditions)

• Stories submitted: 12
• Stories sold: 6 (50%)
• Stories rejected: 4 (33%)
• Stories outstanding: 2 (17%)

Thoughts about the numbers:

• I’m pleased with the number of things that were published. It’s nice to have new novels and stories out in the wild.
• You’ll note that I did a LOT more editing this year. Gotta pay the bills. The Husband has retired from tech.
• The Scribe award nominations and win were very nice. I appreciate being acknowledged by my peers.
• As for the stories submitted and sold/rejected…I really am on target with that one. My acceptance rate hovers around 50%. This year I made my 100+ short story sale. That was cool.

I don’t really have a lot to say about the metrics for this year. I’m fine with them. They’re respectable for a full time publishing professional. With the Shadowrun magazine coming out next year and being an editor-at-large for CGL, my editing numbers will not be going down. That does cut into the writing schedule. But I’ve got my plans for next year—which I will talk about in the next blog. In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of my cats.

I hope you have had a very good holiday season!

While I was in Canada, I discovered there were two very interesting book bundles being sold. One that has my books in it. One that does not.

Ending on 30 November 2024, the first is the Shadowrun Fiction Mega Bundle, run by Humble Bundle. It supports the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, which is pretty cool. (Note: Donation proceeds will be provided to the Binc Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to providing financial assistance to booksellers and comic sellers, their employees, and their families, in times of crisis.)

More importantly to me, this book bundle contains every novel and novella I’ve written for Shadowrun! So, if you’re missing any of my Shadowrun fiction, this is a very good time to get it. Plus it’s got so much more Shadowrun goodness from old authors and new!

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Next up we have: The Never Too Old to Save the World Bundle.

Curated on StoryBundle by Marie Bilodeau (who will have a Tell Me on the blog shortly.)

Ending on 21 November 2024, Marie has put together 10 books of middle-aged heroines and heroes who claim and keep their power. Saving the world isn’t just a young orphan’s game anymore. This bundle looks fantastic. I’ve just recently been introduced to the term “Crone Lit” and I love it. Not only that, I’m already reading Becoming Crone.

There you go. Two bundles of books for a fabulous price. If you need some fiction to help keep you sane for the holiday season, I’ve got you covered.

Shadowrun: Magic, Machines, and Mayhem, co-edited with John Helfers, is my 24th edited anthology. The pre-order link for the anthology is live. (Released on 20 Sep 2024.) This anthology is also my first official edited thing as an Editor-at-Large for Catalyst Game Labs. What a beautiful cover and just look at that Table of Contents!

Introduction by John Helfers
“An Apple a Day” by Bryan CP Steele
“Beer and Waffles” by R. L. King
“Licensed to Die” by Bryan Young
“Night Shades” by Jason M. Hardy
“To Fix a Broken Heart” by Marie Bilodeau
“The Price of Art” by Andrew Peregrine
“A Tale for Munchausen’s Merriment” by Jennifer Brozek
“Life at 9000 RPM” by RJ Thomas
“Out of Dodge and Into the Fire” by Ken’ Horner
“A Casual Glance” by Dylan Birtolo
“Dog Days” by Aaron Rosenberg
“One Night in Bellevue” by Crystal Frasier
“Can’t Trust a Trickster” by Alina Pete
“The Wastelands Speak” by Jaym Gates
“Where the Heart Is” by Michael A. Stackpole
“Incidents, Accidents, and Consequences” by Russell Zimmerman

I will note that I am not usually in the ToC of an anthology I’ve edited but I wrote the story and got it accepted before John brought me on as an official co-editor.